FULL INFORMATION, INTEGRITY,
AND DESIRE-BASED THEORIES OF WELL-BEING
Forthcoming in Philosophical Studies.
Desire-based theories of well-being claim that a person's well-being consists
of the satisfaction of her desires. Many of these theories say that well-being
consists of the satisfaction of desires that she would have if her desires
were "corrected" in various ways. Some versions of this theory claim that
the corrections involve having "full information" or being an "ideal observer."
I argue that well-being does not depend on what one would desire if she
were an "ideal observer." Rather, it depends on what she would desire if
she had as much information as she could have and still maintain her identity
as the particular person she is. The paper attempts to spell out this suggestion
by constructing a notion of integrity. Roughly, integrity is preserved
if one's most central projects, commitments, and character traits are left
in tact. I argue that desire-based theories of well-being should define
well-being in terms of the satisfaction of those desires that one would
have if one's epistemic situation were idealized as much as would be consistent
with maintaining her integrity.